AMD and Red Spots in Vision?

[SuzanneS911]

I just found out my father has AMD, which he's known for a while.  Last night he asked me to look into a eye supplement suggested to him by his eye doctor.  It's called ICaps.  Anyway - he said after he started taking it he began noticing disturbing spots in his vision.  He says at night he would get bright white spots in his vision and when he woke up he had dark red spots in his vision when he opened his eyes.  He said the red spots looked like they could be spots of blood (and were slightly blurry around the edges) and they would prevent him from seeing for quite a while after waking.  This continued while on the ICaps.  He quit the ICaps a while ago for another medical reason but now is suppose to go back on them.  He says the spots slowly decreased when he quit the supplement and are now gone.  He wonders if the supplement could cause this?  I just started searching the web for "red spots in vision" and found this is frequently a symptom of "wet" AMD and it sounds like this could be very serious.  I noticed the ICaps does have red dye and a large amount of gelatin.  I thought maybe his body was not able to process the red gelatin, which is what he may have been seeing?  Help?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear SuzanneS911,

I am not aware of his symptoms be a side effect of ICaps or an eye vitamin.  I would recommend that he seek the care of an eyeMD to examine his eyes and take a complete history. There may be other diagnoses which can cause spots in one’s vision.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[SuzanneS911]

Dr. Feldman -  thank you very much for taking the time to respond.  I appreciate you answering my question.  I have made a follow-up appointment for my father.

Thank you,
Suzanne